When you have to read a book – The Moonstone

Last Christmas time, I took part in a market in Athenry. As usual, I met a lot of “colleagues” and a number of interesting people.

An occasion like that is the perfect way of becoming aware of the variety and endless shades of human characters existing in the world.

Well, at some stage an old white haired man came closer to my stall and, after telling me something very nice on my handmade jewellery, he stared at the name of my stall.
We all know that Irish people have always some stories to tell, and this man was very Irish. He started his story with a question: “Moonstone… Have you ever read the book?”
I realized that it was on my list, waiting on one of my shelves at home. I explained that to him, and he was happy to go on: “Oh, you know, it’s a great book! I have read it at school. I was born and studied in Donegal…” (Here I felt astonished, as for maybe the first time I could understand someone coming from Donegal) “We had to read The Moonstone for our Irish class. Then we had to write a synopsis of the book in Irish, and it was so hard! But I remember I loved the book. Read it!”

I know Christmas was a while ago, but I can say that I have finally finished reading The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins, and I loved it too!
I know my recommendation sounds far less poetic than the old Donegal man’s one, but trust me, trust him!